Professional Practice 2 – Blog Review

Back in January 2020, I was approached by the headmaster of Framlingham College Prep School – a school which I had both attended as a pupil and worked as a member of staff for – and was asked if I would consider doing some artwork on a glass wall in the school, that would act as a motivational quote board for the pupils to be inspired by.

I was more than happy to commit to this project and so we set about discussing what work I could do. The idea was that I would do the artwork in liquid chalk pens as they could easily be wiped away, and therefore allow me to do a new piece of artwork/inspirational quote every week for the next few weeks. The headmaster wanted something that both the pupils, staff and parents could all relate to and we discussed the possibility of doing a children’s story book as it would have a great appeal to an audience of many different ages. However, we couldn’t find one that really jumped out at us. We spoke about the usual choices for school murals such as Dr Seuss, or Winnie-the-Pooh, but everything we thought of seemed slightly cliché and just a bit ‘overused’ in a school setting.

It just so happened that both the Headmaster and I were following the same artist on Instagram, Charlie Mackesy, who had just released his book ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse’.

We both loved the simplicity of the work and the messages that Charlie conveyed in his works. So I ended up doing a weekly drawing right up until the pandemic hit in April of 2020. Due to this, I ended up not doing anymore drawings as there were no pupils in school to see it.

However, the headmaster wanted to continue to have some artwork for the pupils to enjoy whilst they were remote learning and so suggested the idea of producing a series of murals around the school. I was really keen to do this as it seemed like such a nice idea and not one we have really seen done in a school.

One obstacle of this of course was the issue of copyright on the images. Whilst the liquid chalk pens were probably alright as they could easily be wiped away when needed to, the headmaster and I felt we should probably get permission to use the images in murals as they would be more permanent.

We managed to find his email via his social media pages and managed to get his permission to use his works.

He even posted a photo of the one of my glass drawings on his Instagram account:

What this process has taught me is the importance of social media within art practice. By being connected with other artists on social media, I was able to draw on them for inspiration to propel my own work forwards.

Also, by posting the work I had done for the school on social media, I have since got some more requests by other staff members at the school who want other murals for their departments (I will be doing another post about this and the logistics of it at a later date).

Below are a few of the murals I painted in the school:

For this blog post I will be looking at the Website for the Tate Gallery. The Tate organisation and its many galleries are all compiled in this one website. This is a bonus for people planning their visit, or researching galleries as it means that you don’t of to scroll through a million tabs trying to find the right gallery/exhibitions.

The website is incredibly simple to use and its design is simple and clear, making it accessible for all ages and abilities (that being both technological ability as well as artistic ability!). In fact, the Tate website accessibility makes it a great educational tool for artists, students and the general public. It provides thorough explanations of artworks and their context, without it becoming too daunting or elitist.

On the Tate website, you can also find a whole glossary of ‘Art  Terms’ (from explaining painting techniques, to giving a detailed account on most art movements), as well as a whole range of different podcasts that delve into different artists, art works, and common themes in art practice. This is a great tool for art enthusiasts, but also for art students (I’d say even from GCSE level right up to University Students).

The website makes it incredibly easy to plan a visit to one of the Tate Galleries, giving full details of what’s on and when. It also has thorough information on how they are making the galleries safe during the pandemic.

In conclusion, the Tate Gallery website is an excellent educational resource. It accessibility and simple explanations of various different topics makes it a great source of information.

One criticism I do have of it, is it doesn’t necessarily have all the information that you may want to know about a topic/artist, however this is probably good as it means you are not scrolling through daunting looking paragraphs of text. What I have found the website incredibly useful for during my 3 years at University is as a starting point for my research. It has enough information to give you a basic understanding of something, which then you can then go on to research more in your own time.